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President Obama’s clarion call for education

Barack Obama will use the issue of education to help frame the budget debate. |
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Obama has used the competition to encourage states to create more charter schools and merit-based-pay systems, ideas viewed as a challenge to a powerful constituency: teachers’ unions.

But because Republicans continue to blame the White House for high unemployment and seem fixated on gutting the health care law, Obama may be hard pressed to get more education reforms through Congress. Overhauling the No Child Left Behind law in particular would require intense engagement with Capitol Hill at a time when there is little political will for policy battles.

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At the same time, Obama can’t ignore growing anxiety among the Democratic education constituency that wants his administration to follow through on their promises for change.

“The question is: Is this our Egypt moment?” asked former New York City Schools Chancellor Joel Klein, a hero of the education reform movement, referring to the potential of grass-roots pressure to force Obama’s hand. “I challenge us to make this our Egypt moment, because our country cannot wait.”

Duncan will lead the push in Congress to fund some of the administration’s key priorities, in addition to any other education policy reforms that it intends to pursue. He’ll also be on the front lines of outreach to the education reformers who have split on the issue of support for teacher unions.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, Duncan will travel to Colorado, a major hot spot for education — and political battleground for Obama in 2012. Duncan is scheduled to address teacher union contracting negotiations.

The budget fight is also a major test of the president’s ability to keep the Democratic Party’s diverse constituency united despite wide-ranging cuts to beloved programs.

“It’s hard to have the ‘Democrat message,’” Carville added. “But I think the party can be well united, and I think successfully, that we’re against what they’re doing. And I think the White House senses that and is going to get into this fight really good.”

Readers' Comments (43)

Obama can shoot his mouth off all he wants. He is no longer in Control, OUR Republicans are and anything with Obamas INVESTMENTS (aka, SPENDING) is DOA. Obama can try and package all his " Investments" anyway he likes they are going nowhere. The credit card is gone now. Thats why we sent the Republicans to Washington is historic numbers last November. There will be no more debt piled on us, no more spending and NO increase in the debt ceiling. The Democrats had better get used to it. Reality can be a wake up call. We are closing the Obama circus down !

There will be no more debt piled on us, no more spending and NO increase in the debt ceiling.

There will be more debt piled on us, there will be more spending, and there will be an increase in the debt ceiling and the Republicans in the House will lead the way in doing it. All the savings Republicans will accumulate over the next two years -- mainly on the backs of infants, small farmers, the elderly, and the poor -- will not even be enough to pay for the Republican windfall tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires.

By 2012, American voters will see the Republican Party is NOT the party to lead us into the future, unless we want a future that looks like Haiti's. Republicans are simple-minded and can't juggle more than a couple of ideas at the same time. Cutting spending is no magical panacea anymore than deregulation is, yet those two balls are all Republicans can keep in the air as we move into the future. We have to move forward with business investments in maintaining our infrastructure, modernizing our transportation and communication systems, making our education system number one in the world, and beefing up our research and development activities if we are to be competitive and leaders worldwide in the future. Republicans pretend to believe cutting spending and deregulating the very businesses whose reckless ways led us to the Great Crash under Bush/Cheney and the loss of eight million jobs is the way to future prosperity, when in truth it will only make the rich richer and make our country look like Haiti.

I have yet to hear of a link between Obama's budget for education --- increased spending --- and increasing the academic achievement of public school graduates. Isn't that what we should be evaluating? There seems to be an eleventh commandment that courses through the blood vessels of liberals: MORE EDUCATION SPENDING GOOD!!

In fact, we now stand 25th among industrialized countries in academic achievement of high school graduates. A recent poll showed nearly half of college enrolled students showed to advances in learning after TWO YEARS in college.

My belief is that the more federal money that is thrown at education, the worse our kids do. The data clearly supports this argument.

All the savings Republicans will accumulate over the next two years -- mainly on the backs of infants, small farmers, the elderly, and the poor -- will not even be enough to pay for the Republican windfall tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires

This is the perfect illustration of why countries decline whenever socialists get control. Currently in this country, nearly all of the government-provided benefits go the bottom half of wager earners, but 99.7% of this largesse is paid for by the taxpayers in the top half of wage earners. But the socialists dont' think that's enough. They want the cost of govenment paid by fewer and fewer people, and the free handouts to go to a larger and larger percentage of the population.

Eventually you reach a tipping point where a majority of voters make their living off the government. At that point, they will continually vote for more benefits, because they're on the receiving end, and more taxes because someone else is paying them. At that point, the wealth producers will cease to produce wealth - and why should they, when the government takes the lion's share ot it. They simply move their wealth elsewhere.

That's where the decline begins and that's where we are now.

If something isn't done to stop this insane spending binge, or these confiscatory tax increases, this country will go the way of North Korea, Cuba, the USSR or western Europe.

Couldn't happen here? It already has. Take a look at Detroit, East St. Louis, New York and California where socialists are allowed to rule without adult supervision. Or just take a look at the last two years of the federal government. Unless the adults can take control, it's only going to get worse.

It makes me proud to be an American to see Obama standing up against those thieves - yes, thieves - who would rob the teachers unions of their rightfully negotiated benefits. Our teachers deserve a living wage and a comfortable retirement. Only a heartless Republican would want to rob our teachers of their entitlements.

The states are cutting education funds FIRST! Who needs educated working class citizens? We send our jobs overseas, educate foreign students in our colleges, give corporations tax breaks for anti-American investment, buy from countries who subsidize their companies, keep the dollar strong so American products are expensive, import oil while stopping energy exploration and import more food instead of growing it. Education is the enemy of dictators everywhere.

The education bureaucracy is one of the most bloated, piggish ones we have. We spend four times as much as we did per pupil than we did 30 years ago and I dare say that todays kids are hardly any smarter. We've got no discipline in public schools, we've got stupid rules and regulations by the truckload (from nail clippers as "weapons" to No Child Left Behind) and we've got a culture of "self esteem" that prevents teachers from handing the little monster 3 or 4 hours of real homework every night because that may detract from videogaming. Throw in the massive higher education bubble that is going to go kaboom real soon and you've got yourself a bona fide cluster hump. Defund the Education Dept. It does NOTHING useful. It is a titanic waste of money. We here in NW PA don't need some idiot DC bureaucrat telling us how to educate our kids.

Education is clearly important - especially for the future of the nation. Whether throwing money at education is a panacea or whether the federal government's role should be expanded should be explored before decisions are made. This article does not contain enough information for a full discussion.

How are education dollars being spent? If one doesn't know allocation, hard to evaluate. Schools have to pay for utilities and basic maintenance (light bulbs, disposing of trash, etc.). Then there's administrative overhead. Is there room for cuts there? Do education budgets pay for teacher retirements? Local & state budgets are in trouble and government employee pensions are a major factor. So, let's look at that and see if savings are possible there.

Before the Federal government assumes a larger role, is there evidence that an expanding Federal role has improved education in the past (that means results, not dollars allocated).

What about parental involvement? Shouldn't mandate that anymore than participation in health insurance, but if parents don't encourage their children to study and do well in school, chances of success diminish. That responsibility can't be passed to teachers or government. Some school districts propose closing schools when populations shifts lead to fewer students. From what I've seen on TV, if parents were as committed with their kids to studying as they are to objecting to closing buildings to save money for other aspects of education, there wouldn't be a problem.

I have reservations about an increased role for the Federal government. If I lived near a river and it was expected to flood due to rain upstream, I wouldn't wait from someone from Washington to arrive to put up sandbags. I apply the same reasoning to Washington taking care of education - well intended maybe but not sure they'll get the job done. Local people on the other hand........

The DOE needs to be defunded now. We have been dumping billions of dollars into the DOE with negative results. We spend more per student than any other country and we rank around 25th in achievement. The definition of insanity is: Keep doing the same thing over and over again and expect different results. But with leftwing baggers it makes no difference. Spend spend spend

Unfortunately to educate one must have someone who can be educated. We have in America today a large group of persons who simply cannot learn enough to wipe their rears. We do not need more college students - we need more trade school students. Few of those now attending college will benefit. About the only ones that will benefit from these poor fools attempts are the financial institutions who will own their soul for life.

Let me get this straight.....the Federal Government collects money in the form of taxes from the States to create a Dept. of Education that can redistribute that same money back to the States.....and somehow there are people that don't think there's going to be a massive loss of $$$$$ in the process.

71% of High School students don't graduate and the Democrats answer is to throw more $$$$ at the problem (oh, I'm sorry, I mean 'invest').

Here's an idea...abolish the Dept. of Education and let the States keep their money to spend as they wish....what a concept.

While we're at it abolish the Dept. of Energy....it was created to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

In the late 70's we imported ~25% of our oil.....now we import 57%.......I guesss the Democrats think we need to 'invest' more into that failed department, too.

There is unfortunately one fact of life that no one will talk about. People are limited in their ability to be educated by their genetic background. Call it racist or what you will since it applies to all humans. I grew up on a farm in Nebraska being raised by a virtually illiterate poor German immigrant farm couple ( Mothers parents ) attending a one room school house with teachers who had high school educations and knew very little about teaching. The high schools I went to were little better and my education could not be described as adequate. However, when I joined the Navy I scored within a couple points of the top in their testing. I attribute that to the genes I inherited from my father, and others in the family. I Have gone on to pick up a few degrees and was fortunate that college did assist me. Sad to say that is not the story of all, but there is no other explanation for it but genetics.

I would like someone to explain what part money seems to play. Many children in high school never learn to read or write or do simple math, or anything about how to get a job or dress like citizens who want to work. These are the basics of life that made or forefathers successful even when they may have quit at the 8th grade. However they were taught civility, respect, and love of country. All things our money is no longer evidently spent for. Huge increases in money mainly are going for farther advances of teachers unions pensions , health care and wages. None of which currently they seem to be earning in regard to results.